{"id":17921,"date":"2026-04-29T14:55:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/17921\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T14:55:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:55:22","slug":"wrecked-homes-and-huge-debts-why-cowboy-builders-are-getting-away-with-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/17921\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrecked homes and huge debts: Why cowboy builders are getting away with it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title = \"Wrecked homes and huge debts: Why cowboy builders are getting away with it\"   width=\"580\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HDZ3nXNB604\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\nWrecked homes and huge debts: Why cowboy builders are getting away with it<br \/>\n<br \/>\nA Sky News investigation has found that only 43 &#8216;cowboy builders&#8217; were successfully prosecuted in 2025 &#8211; despite tens of thousands of complaints by homeowners.<\/p>\n<p>Exclusive data reveals a postcode lottery of enforcement against rogue traders, with homeowners finding there is very little legal recourse for compensation. <\/p>\n<p>Amelia Harper met one family who were forced to live in their garage for a year after a botched loft conversion left them facing a \u00a3100,000 repair bill.<\/p>\n<p>And a wheelchair user who had paid a builder \u00a3170,000 upfront, told her he was left homeless mid-renovation when the man claimed to have gone bust. <\/p>\n<p>#roguetrader #builders #skynews #skynewslive #uktonight <\/p>\n<p>SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel for more videos: http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/skynews<br \/>\nFollow us on Twitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/skynews<br \/>\nLike us on Facebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/skynews<br \/>\nFollow us on Instagram: https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/skynews<br \/>\nFollow us on TikTok: https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@skynews <\/p>\n<p>For more content go to http:\/\/news.sky.com and download our apps: Apple https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/gb\/app\/sky-news\/id316391924?mt=8 Android https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.bskyb.skynews.android&#038;hl=en_GB <\/p>\n<p>Listen to our new podcast This is Why, available for free here: https:\/\/podfollow.com\/thisiswhy<\/p>\n<p>To enquire about licensing Sky News content, you can find more information here: https:\/\/news.sky.com\/info\/library-sales<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wrecked homes and huge debts: Why cowboy builders are getting away with it A Sky News investigation has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[177,21351,21350,1791,296,21353,590,21352],"class_list":{"0":"post-17921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sky-news","8":"tag-breaking","9":"tag-buildings","10":"tag-cowboy-builders","11":"tag-criminal","12":"tag-sky-news","13":"tag-sky-news-investigation","14":"tag-sky-news-live","15":"tag-stoke"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@videos\/116488683017798110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}